Not another poker affiliate site....Jeez

[PFO]

Whats up with all these damn poker affiliate sites that pop up every day. It's getting ridiculus. People just think they can put up some poker info and boom make money. There are some original sites but for the most part it is the same old poker review/bonus/info sites.

I think it is funny some of the domains people use with 3 dashes and numbers...etc.

I get requests to trade links with sites that I have sworn I have seen several times but with a different name and color scheme.

Needless to say, I would not try starting up a new poker site unless you have a bunch of advertising money or a very orginial idea with great marketing. It is not as easy as it seems.

[Acapulco]

I just mentioned this in another post, but it sounds like many of these (different name and coloring scheme) are from the same network. And there is actually a smart strategy behind this. They may not be making money directly from all their sites, but rather they feed their main sites through 3-way link exchanges. So, to the contrary, they do have plenty of advertising money and clever marketing. I think that over 50% of the link exchange requests I receive are now from this single network.

[Kyle]

Yeh I know what network your talking about. Someone mentioned in a post a few months ago it might have been pokerlistings.

[Nick]

Dead right... I'm starting to get really annoyed by all these emails as well. They've got like 50 sites translated into 10 languages each and I seem to be getting a link exchange email from about 10 of them each day. Only the clueless webmaster would get involved in their somewhat shady tactics.

[Acapulco]

My "favorite" tactic of this same network is a group of 3 or 4 poker guides supposedly written by an author with a normal name (and really cheesy photo on the home pages - looks like it's from the 70s, which was actually a really groovy decade, but I digress...). They branded all the sites with his name and photo, to make him look like a benevolent authority who was just nice enough to go through the bother of making a site, writing articles, exchanging links, and doing SEO for no personal financial gain.

Nothing wrong with that - it's actually quite a noble idea. They were all branded as non-profit, ad-free sites for around a year. At first I was thinking "what the ...?", then I realized that they did this to more easily get DMOZ listings (the guides had no affiliate links at the time) and other more powerful links because they were not "commercial". They also always had nice links going to the power center of the network. Then, when they reached critical mass of links, (right on schedule) they abandoned the non-profit facade. Those sites are all doing well now.

They're really brilliant marketers and SEOs, although they do sort of prey on people's ignorance at times.

Anyone want to trade non-SEO-friendly links?

[PPP]

Any network doing three way link exchanges are killing themselves, so be thankful every time some nitwit sends you an email like that.

[Acapulco]

Haha, just since I made my last post I received an email from the dude in the groovy photo asking to buy advertising, and two 3-way link requests from the network. Do these guys have an army working for them or what?

[CasinoMack]

Originally Posted by PPP

Any network doing three way link exchanges are killing themselves, so be thankful every time some nitwit sends you an email like that.

Not the way this Link Firm out of India is doing it.

This is how their 3 way link exchanges work.

They link to you from a fly by night no pr site that they use as their link farm, while you link to a semi-quality site. Thus you are diluting your site to boost their semi-quality site in exchange for something that will ultimately hurt your site. Its a double boost for them. The transfer of link power plus serp boost.

The link firm was hired or is owned by Pokerlistings, but I just got another interesting email from them again:

Hi Webmaster,

I am Jack and I oversee the site xxrakebackrate.com. I was looking for good partner sites that would join us in developing new business thoughts to improve the overall condition of websites.
I found your site to be very interesting and I am eager to invite you to enter into a profitable 3 way link exchange deal with us.

In this deal, I have included my partner site: xxtaketherakeback.com, which provides the interested online poker player with the best rake back deals.

Why don't we begin our business links with this deal? Upload the link information given below. I will upload your link on my site.

Link details to be uploaded:

Title : Poker Rakeback
Url : xxhttp://www.taketherakeback.com/
Desc : Get the Best Bodog Rakeback and More

I hope this arrangement turns out to be mutually rewarding for us and helps us extend our business dealings to other fascinating activities too.

Have a great day,

Jack Olsen
Marketing Manager
xwww.rakebackrate.com

IP Address: 203.197.74.65

Good ole Jack Olsen in India.
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ptr.ch?ip=203.197.74.65

[Holis]

Isnt take the rake back a member here ?

[PokerMaster]

Originally Posted by drawdead

Isnt take the rake back a member here ?

He sold that site.